Latinos and Obama
I've been telling people for a long while that when Latinos look at Obama and Johnnie Mac, the choice will be so crystal clear that Obama won't have a hard time garnering the lion's share of the Latino vote. Now, Ruben Navarrete, Jr. echoes that point, somewhat. I have to give him some credit because Ruben is the Latino columnist that has elicited the most "shut the f*** up!" reactions from me, almost from day one.
A new Gallup Poll summary of surveys taken in May shows Obama winning 62 percent of Latino voters nationwide, compared with 29 percent for McCain. The pro-Democratic group Democracy Corps compiled surveys from March through May that showed Obama with a 19-point lead among Latinos. And a Los Angeles Times poll last month showed Obama leading McCain by 14 points among Latinos in California.
I'm not surprised. As I have been writing for months, Latinos haven't been voting against Barack Obama as much as they've been voting for Hillary Clinton. Give the senator from New York credit. She took full advantage of Obama's late start in courting Latino voters, and she had the benefit of what remains a popular brand with Latinos: Clinton, Inc.
Emphasis added. Of course, leave it to Ruben to trigger yet another "shut the f*** up!" moment on this one.
Now that the Illinois senator has become the presumptive nominee, and Hillary has suspended her campaign and endorsed him, Latinos really have only two choices -- go with Obama, or vote for John McCain.
Choice No. 2 is not such a bad option. McCain would make an excellent president. And, in fact, I suspect that, when all is said and done, many Latinos -- perhaps as much as 35 percent -- will put their support behind him. Not because they have anything against Obama, but because McCain has -- for more than 15 years and long before the immigration issue became prominent -- had an outstanding record of reaching out to Latino voters, earning as much as 70 percent of the Latino vote in his Senate re-election campaigns in Arizona.
Emphasis added. First, I have to wonder what the heck does Ruben see in McCain to conclude he would make an "excellent presidernt." Perhaps Ruben was really smitten by the U.S. staying 100 years in Iraq. Or about the possibility that McCain will nominate Supreme Court judges that will make it easier to overturn Roe. Or, since he's out in California, the idea of suspending the federal gas tax really appeals to him. Whatever the reason is, we don't know since that's as conclusory a statement as it gets.
Second, in politics as in the stock markets, "past performance is no guarantee of future performance." Besides, if you bother canvassing through the election results in Arizona, which you can find here, you'll find that in McCain's "closest" election, he got about 58% of the vote. And in 2004, he was reelected with neary 77% of the votes. Since Ruben doesn't even mention when McCain got 70% of the Latino vote, we can't tell whether his Latino support is "substantially greater" than the norm (if that happened on the former election) or "somewhat lower" than the average (if it happened on the latter election.)
It doesn't matter how much experience McCain has courting the Latino vote. McCain is stuck with the GOP's position on immigration: enforcement first, and foremost; dehumanization and criminalization of illegal immigrants; and border fences to "keep them out and keep us safe from 'them.'" With a party like that behind him, he won't win too many Latino voters.
So, Ruben, when it comes to how great McCain would be for Latinos, just shut the f*** up, please!
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Immigration to America is about class ascension. Black folks are always depicted as a cautionary warning. "Complain, and you'll end up like them."
So, everybody comes here, and hits collective and individual ceilings, and then goes, "oh, is that what all that protesting is about."
Until it happens to me, those people are lazy, dumb, difficult. Then it happens to you, after you play by the rules, too. The rules shift. The 500 yearers know from experience. Some give up. Others trudge onward.
Many in the Latino communities have other lands to call home in the heart, so they can afford to vote "as individuals." As the children assimilate, the truths of exclusion materialize.
Act that way, vote this way, and I'll give you a little piece. Claim your full American birthright and see what happens.
Everyone has the pick whomever they want. I just hope everyone votes for the good of the nation as they see it. If they honestly think that is McCain, okay. If they think it's Obama, then yes, we can agree.
Here is what I wrote regarding Navarette and his pontificated crappola. Enjoy.
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More Crappola from Ruben Navarette Jr.?
In a recent article and now published online at the web site for CNN, Navarette posits the Republican talking points and goes so far as to say the Senator McCain would make an excellent president. And my not to disagree too strenously with Navarette, but perhaps, he has consumed one too many cups of java. Thus, not to rain on his parade, I will refute his various and sundry statements.
First, Navarette goes on to criticize the many pundits for their suggesting that Latinos would not vote for Senator Barack Obama. Moreover, he at least acknowledges that Latinos favored the Clinton 'brand' for historical reasons. This behavior among Latinos is not new in the least. Furthermore, he pontificates that as the Clinton campaign was running out of gas, Latinos were migrating to the Obama campaign. Not so, of course, if he was willing to acknowledge that the voters in Puerto Rico continued to support Clinton at the same constant and consistent level and this behavior was reaffirmed by the exit polls.
Now that Clinton has conceded the race to Obama, it logically follows that Latinos will overwhelmingly vote for Senator Obama in the General Election in contrast to Senator McCain. Needless to say, the majority of Latinos are affiliated with the Democratic Party and they do so because the Democratic Coalition "delivers" to the Latino Community. However, if Navarette had questioned the validity of "what" and "how much" the Democratic Coalition will deliver to Latinos, he would be making a valid and exemplary case as to his Argumentation, but he isn't and he doesn't, and thusly, falls far short.
And here is the "meat" of his Argumentation:
"Choice No. 2 is not such a bad option. McCain would make an excellent president. And, in fact, I suspect that, when all is said and done, many Latinos--perhaps as much as 35%--will put their support behind him. Not because they have anything against Obama, but because McCain has--for more than 15 years and long before the immigration issue became prominent--had an outstanding record for reaching to out to Latino voters, earning as much as 70 percent of the Latino voter in his Senate re-election campaigns in Arizona."
Firstly, let me say and as a Democrat, I voted for McCain's re-election in 2004 for two reasons and as such, the Democratic candidate had no risible public experience and he campaigned on a platform for "anybody but Bush". This political behavior is egregious in all manner and form for consideration when addressing "public policy" either from a Democrat or a Republican. Additionally, back in 2000, Bush's acolytes "trashed" McCain in South Carolina, and the consequence of this behavior for the political gutter, caused McCain to fold his political tent and also caused me to consider that McCain deserved a second chance to concretize his presidential ambitions, and to my way of thinking, some "fairness" was called for on my part. And as a Latino from Arizona, my behavior was not unusual in the least since many Latinos expressed their similar concerns and voted accordingly for McCain. And yet, Navarette, never checked with any Latinos in Arizona as to their voting behavior. To wit, Navarette is touting the Charlie Black propaganda with the usual panache for political spin.
And Navarette is also wrong when he says that he--McCain has a long history for "reaching out" to Latinos here in Arizona. As such, more of the traditional snake oil is being offered to anyone who is willing to listen and to those who are unfamiliar with McCain's history. In his 20 plus years in Congress, McCain has yet to deliver "anything" by my lights, to Latinos in general and to Latinos in Arizona in particular. With respect to Immigration, he dropped the ball after being scalded by the hot water delivered to him by his fellow conservatives. To wit, McCain did not show himself to Latinos as a "stand-up guy". So, if one were to go back to his past ten years for demonstrating his presidential ambitions, he has followed the Conservative Agenda to the dismay of political Moderates in either the Republican or Democratic Parties. To wit, he has filled the seat of the late Barry Goldwater, and McCain still remains to the right of Goldwater when it comes to public policies for all the many years, both in the House and the Senate. He is an Uber-Conservative, and the only more Uber-Conservative Member of the Senate is Jon Kyl and he too is from Arizona. And needless to say, McCain sends Kyl out onto the public airwaves and to the editorial newsrooms of the major newspapers to "market" McCain's amibitions.
Now, I could expressly say, but I won't, that the Fourth Branch of Government is the Corporate News Media, and yet, the news media will now get around to 'digging into" McCain's political history once they have gotten over themsevesl for their behavior for the sexism that was concentrated and in heavy abundance at Hillary Clinton. And lest we Latinos misunderstand, the "press" is still in denial of their reporting behavior, and still think they did nothing wrong. Democrats of all stripes should be challenging the press for their behavior, lest the press refuse to challenge the nuanced and subtle "attacks" that will be leveled at both McCain and Obama. Getting some Truth out of the corporate-owned news media would be welcomed and help restore the tarnished reputation of many of the media news outlets and their employees.
Perhaps, in the future, Ruben Navarette Jr. should consider contacting the Chicano Veterans Organization when it comes to fully understanding the political behavior being advanced by the McCain Campaign and their respective "talking points". And as we have been following Senator McCain since he arrived into the Sonoran Desert in the early 1980's and commenced his political career, we consider ourselves "experts" on the subject matter, and bar none.
And given that this is already a lengthy post, I won't proceed to aggravate your reading pleasure any further, and therefore, it's the "issues" and not McCain the person, that is being challenged in the form of Navarette. And of course, Navarette knows this too but he will continue "preaching" McCain to the Latino Communities. After all, he is a notable Republican since there are few Latinos with his access to the high-premium platforms for public discourse.
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The above can be found on the page for the "Cactus Juice Commentaries" at the web site of the Chicano Veterans Organization.
Jaango